Following a viral documentary alleging fraud at Minnesota daycare centers, federal scrutiny has intensified around a related and ongoing issue: alleged abuse and fraud within parts of the H-1B visa program.
Minnesota officials have reportedly disputed the claims made in the documentary, stating that investigations are still ongoing. However, the episode has heightened public frustration concerning enforcement failures. This is especially relevant given that federal agencies are currently conducting hundreds of active investigations into alleged H-1B violations, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
H-1B enforcement escalates amid mounting evidence of abuse
Federal labor and immigration officials have stepped up enforcement against employers accused of using the H-1B program to underpay foreign workers, displace Americans, or engage in discriminatory hiring practices.
Under Project Firewall, the U.S. Department of Labor has expanded the use of secretary-certified investigations, allowing probes to proceed without a formal worker complaint when officials claim reasonable cause. As The Dallas Express previously reported, investigators have focused on H-1B-dependent companies and third-party contractors that place large numbers of visa holders into short-term roles.
Court rulings highlight discrimination tied to H-1B staffing practices
Recent federal court decisions have added new urgency to the enforcement push.
In October 2024, a federal jury found Cognizant Technology Solutions engaged in a “pattern or practice of intentional discrimination” against non-Indian and non-South Asian employees, concluding that staffing and termination decisions disproportionately favored visa holders.
That verdict was reinforced in December 2025, when a federal judge ruled Cognizant’s internal “Visa Readiness” and “Visa Utilization” policies had a discriminatory disparate impact on U.S. workers.
Evidence cited by the court showed:
- Non-Indian workers were 8.4 times more likely to be terminated from Cognizant’s internal bench system
- Roughly 88% of Cognizant’s U.S. workforce during the class period was South Asian
- The statistical likelihood of these outcomes occurring by chance was described as “less than one in a billion”
Cognizant has disputed the rulings and said it plans to appeal.
Former U.S. consular officer alleges widespread H-1B fraud
Concerns about H-1B enforcement have also been amplified by allegations from a former U.S. government official who oversaw visa adjudications during a key period.
Mahvash Siddiqui, who served as a consular officer at the U.S. consulate in Chennai, India, from 2005 to 2007, said she believes between 80% and 90% of H-1B visa applications from India she reviewed during that period involved fraudulent documentation or unqualified applicants.
Speaking on the Center for Immigration Studies’ podcast, Siddiqui said forged degrees, fake transcripts, proxy interviews, and fabricated employer letters were common, particularly among applicants routed through visa consultancy networks. She said consular officers who attempted to deny suspicious applications were sometimes overruled by political or bureaucratic pressure.
The last federal H-1B compliance audit was conducted in 2008, and it found that roughly 13 percent of approved H-1B visas were fraudulent.
ICE cases document large-scale visa fraud
Federal law enforcement has also pursued major civil and criminal cases involving companies accused of bypassing H-1B safeguards altogether.
In 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a record $34 million settlement with Infosys after investigators found the firm systematically used B-1 visitor visas to perform work that legally required H-1B authorization. ICE officials said employees were coached to misrepresent travel purposes, conceal job locations, and evade wage and oversight requirements.
Infosys is the second-largest user of H-1B visas nationally, with the company employing around 44,000 beneficiaries over the last five years, according to the USCIS database.
In a separate case in Texas, two Pakistani men, the Law Offices of D. Robert Jones PLLC, and other entities were indicted for orchestrating the submission of fraudulent H-1B applications, DX reported in the spring of 2025.
H-1B wage theft concerns
Beyond criminal settlements, whistleblower litigation has raised further concerns about wage compliance under the H-1B program.
A report by the Economic Policy Institute analyzed internal corporate documents from HCL Technologies. It concluded the company may have underpaid H-1B workers by approximately $95 million per year, potentially violating the program’s “actual wage” requirement.
According to the EPI report, internal planning documents showed HCL deliberately targeted job categories where wage gaps between U.S. workers and visa holders were largest — a strategy described as central to its business model. The findings stem from a False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuit filed by former employees. HCL has denied wrongdoing.
The AFL-CIO’s 2025 H-1B fact sheet said, “In fiscal year 2019, 60 percent of H-1B positions were paid at the lowest two levels, meaning they were paid below the median wage for the occupation and location.”
Yet some think tank minds offer a countervailing outlook. In 2022, an analysis by the libertarian-leaning think tank CATO indicated that H-1B workers are paid in the top 10% of all wages in the U.S.
Admin enforcement change
As the Secretary of Labor certifies new investigations, registrations to potentially receive an H-1B visa plummeted 27% in fiscal 2026, compared to 2025, per Forbes. However, there are still almost three times as many registrations as visas issued in any given year.
“The denial rate for H-1B petitions for initial employment rose to 2.8% in FY 2025 from 2.5% in FY 2024. That was lower than the 3.5% rate in FY 2023 but above the 2.2% rate in FY 2022,” the National Foundation for American Policy said in a recent research paper.
This data comes as President Donald Trump shifted his position on the H-1B in a fall 2025 interview with Fox Host Laura Ingraham, reportedly telling her, “No, you don’t,” when the anchor suggested that America has enough talent to fill every H-1B job.
The seemingly softer statements came after the President’s administration began reweighting the H-1B visa allotment lottery to favor higher wages and reportedly imposed a new 100,000 fee on most new H-1B visas.
